The White House’s reported plot to redirect funding from the Child Care and Development Block Grant subsidies for working parents to families with one stay-at-home parent is best understood as an 11th-hour political ploy to bolster Republicans’ odds in the midterm elections, but a gambit that is unlikely to stand up in court. Because the law, as passed by Congress, allows childcare subsidies to go to only “a parent or parents who are working or attending a job training or educational program” to serve “only as payment for child care services,” the executive branch will likely be stopped in court as quickly as Nancy Pelosi can speed-dial Marc Elias.

But the draft proposal matters less for 2026 than it does for 2028. And considering that top surrogates of JD Vance, who reportedly orchestrated the attempted reform, have pretty directly tethered it to the vice president’s future ambitions, it’s worth considering the policy seriously.